Civil War History in Central Square Cambridge, Massachusetts
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“TO PROTECT THE UNION”: CIVIL WAR HISTORY IN CENTRAL SQUARE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS “to protect the Union”: Civil War History in Central Square Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge Historical Commission, January 2012 Originally researched and prepared for a 2011 exhibit by Michael Kenney of the Cambridge Historical Society and Kathleen (Kit) Rawlins of the Cambridge Historical Commission, with the kind assistance of executive directors Gavin Kleespies of the Society and Charles Sullivan of the Commission. Michael Cunningham, Ph.D., of Louisville, Kentucky, and Richard Dobbins of the American Civil War Research Database of Duxbury, Massachusetts, provided important assistance and research materials. Cambridge Historical Commission Cambridge Historical Society 831 Massachusetts Avenue 159 Brattle Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 www.cambridgema.gov/historic www.cambridgehistory.org 617 349 4683 617 547 4252 [email protected] [email protected] “HERE IT IS, BOYS!” On April 15, 1861, when President Lincoln called for volunteers following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, Cambridge was ready. In January, James Richardson, a lawyer in Central Square, had organized a company of local men for the looming conflict. I had to endure a fire of raillery and sarcasm, from nearly every- one I met . Squibs were published in the local paper making fun of my warlike preparations and every would-be wit seemed to think it the best joke of the day. But Richardson had the backing of Governor John Andrew and when the call came his 97 men would become Company C, 3rd Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. The night of April 16th was chill and stormy, and Richardson was waiting impatiently in his law office when: A tall man, in a rubber overcoat and a sou’wester hat dripping with rain, came in. He took an official-looking paper from his pocket and handed it to me. It was an order from the Governor to appear forthwith . with my company for service. Holding it above my head, I shouted, “Here it is, boys! Go down to Pike’s stable, get a horse apiece and notify every member of the company to be here at my office by daylight tomorrow morning.” The company marched to the State House on the morning of the 17th, becoming the first Massachusetts unit mustered into service. The men boarded a steamer in Boston Harbor, and, a day later, were headed for Fortress Monroe in Virginia, where they served a three-month enlistment. Returning to Boston, the company was mustered out, and most of its members joined newly formed regiments. Image: James P. Richardson in his captain’s uniform in 1861. Courtesy of Mrs Edwin R. Sparrow, “Colonel Richardson and the Thirty-Eighth Massachusetts,” by Richard C. Evarts, Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, Vol. 39 Atlas Details This detail from an 1873 Cambridge atlas shows sites related to Richardson and the mustering of the Civil War company. Both the lawyer’s office and Franklin Hall, where the volunteers were invited to meet, were in the building owned by R. Lamson (outlined in orange; now 559-563 Massachusetts Avenue). The company drilled in Washington Hall inside Wood’s Block (in blue; now 571 Mass. Ave.). In 1861, the livery stable in the center of the block (in purple) was owned by James Pike (and entered via the narrow passage at the red arrow). Main Street was later renamed Massachusetts Avenue, and Austin Street became Bishop Allen Drive. Image: Atlas of the City of Cambridge, 1873 (detail plate J) CIVIL WAR HISTORY IN CENTRAL SQUARE This 1907 photograph shows the brick Lamson Block at the right, which housed both the office of attorney James Richardson and Franklin Hall, where his recruits gathered in mid-January 1861 (when the building was only two stories tall). The four story, white-faced building at the left replaced the earlier brick Wood’s Block; Washington Hall, where Company C drilled in the months before it was called up, was probably above Bird’s Pharmacy. Between the two brick buildings is the passage that led to Pike’s stable (note the sign advertising a boarding stable). Image: 555-575 Massachusetts Avenue (north side), March 25, 1907. Boston Elevated Railway Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission Central Square Details On the night of April 16th, Richardson excitedly ordered a few men to “go down to Pike’s stable [and] get a horse apiece.” Pike’s was here (photo at left), in the area behind Lamson and Wood’s blocks. The 1907 photograph looks west toward Essex Street—the photographer was standing on the roof of what had once been Pike’s stable. The photo at right offers another view of the Lamson Block, the brick building on the left. The Paradise, at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Norfolk Street, was a vaudeville theatre. These two photographs, as well as the one on the preceding page, were taken in 1907 by the Boston Elevated Railway Company to document buildings along the planned route of the new subway from Park Street to Harvard Square (today’s Red Line). Images: Left: Whitney Court looking toward Essex Street, March 25, 1907. Right: 541-563 Mass. Ave., March 25, 1907 Both: Boston Elevated Railway Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission THE MEN OF COMPANY C James Richardson was known as a “fire buff,” and many of the firefighters stationed at the Engine No. 2 firehouse (787-789 Main Street, here at left) were among the first to join his “company to protect the Union.” The firehouse, built in 1852, was designated a City Landmark in 1989. It now houses the Christian Mission Holiness Church. Image: Union No. 2 Engine House, 787-789 Main Street (at left), photo 1894. Courtesy Christian Mission Holiness Church, Cambridge Historical Commission Place of birth Residence at Enlistment Age at Enlistment Cambridge 20 Cambridge 69 0-19 25 Boston 16 (lower Cambridgeport 22) 20-29 63 Massachusetts 11 Boston 8 30 + 3 New England 18 Massachusetts 8 Unknown 6 Canada 8 Unknown 12 Ireland 8 Casualties England & Leading Occupations Killed in action 6 Scotland 7 Printer, bookbinder 21 Died of wounds and Other US 3 Clerk 11 disease 6 Unknown 6 Carpenter 7 Cigar-maker 5 None of the men died during Height Farmer 3 their initial deployment with 6’ + 8 Soap-maker 2 Company C. 5’6”-5’11” 55 Professional 3 5’-5’5” 28 (lawyer, physician, police officer) Unknown 6 COMRADES IN COMPANY C 1ST LT. CHAMBERLAIN Samuel Chamberlain has been described as “probably the most colorful member of Company C”–a description that is hard to contest. He left Massachusetts when only a teenager and served as a cavalryman in the Mexican War, sketching scenes of combat at Monterey and Buena Vista and writing a lively account of his exploits on and off the field, suggestively titled My Confession. When the war ended, Chamberlain returned home, married, and was serving as a Cambridge police officer when the Civil War broke out. As the only member of Company C with military experience, he was commissioned its first lieutenant. He later served in the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment and commanded the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment, an African American unit. Charles Francis Adams, a fellow cavalry officer, recalled Chamberlain as “a large, rough, self-made man [who] had been wild and adventurous in his youth. .Wholly lacking in refinement and education, he was a dashing fellow in his way; and on the whole I fancy the best officer in the regiment.” After the war, Chamberlain became superintendent of the State Arsenal on Garden Street and was later warden of the Charlestown State Prison. He died in 1908. Chamberlain is honored still–if only at a distance. In 1869 the competition to design the city’s Civil War monument was won by the Cambridge twins, Cyrus and Darius Cobb, who chose the former lieutenant as their model for the bare-headed, mustachioed rifleman atop the memorial. The Cambridge Chronicle noted that the Cobbs had been “in the Army during the Rebellion [serving with the 44th Massachusetts Infantry in North Carolina], which makes the success of their design particularly gratifying to their comrades.” (17 April 1869) After the war, they had studios on Tremont Street in Boston. It would be another 67 years before the memorial was completed by the installation in the central arcade of a statue of Abraham Lincoln by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Image: Cambridge in the Centennial (1876), Collection of W. H. L. Dana, Cambridge Historical Commission DR. HOLT, COMPANY SURGEON SGT. KINNEAR Alfred Holt had just opened his medical practice at the John Kinnear was born in 1838 in Glasgow, Scotland, corner of Main (now Massachusetts Avenue) and one of 23 members of Company C born outside the Norfolk streets in Central Square (likely adjacent to United States. He immigrated to the States as a child James Richardson’s law office) when he joined the unit and grew up in Cambridge and worked as a printer. As being mustered by Richardson. war loomed, he was as eager to serve as Richardson and joined his volunteer unit. When Company C was Born in New Hampshire in 1838, Holt studied mustered, Kinnear was appointed one of its sergeants. medicine with a local doctor, then attended medical He later served as first lieutenant in Company E, 30th school at both Harvard and the University of Vermont, Massachusetts Regiment, which saw action in receiving his degree in June 1860. After his service campaigns along the Mississippi River and was involved with Company C, he was appointed assistant surgeon in the pursuit of Confederate forces in northern of the 30th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment. He Virginia, losing 127 men at the Battle of Cedar Creek.